Arasatchi

Arasatchi is a 2004 Indian Tamil-language vigilante film directed by N. Maharajan, starring Arjun and Lara Dutta, alongside an ensemble cast. This is the Tamil debut of Dutta. The film was released on 17 September 2004.

Plot
Brammanadham, a lawyer who argues for rapists and murderers, is killed by a cricket ball hit by Siddharth. Siddharth is a GM of a five-star hotel owned by Rajesh. Rajesh's daughter is Lara, who comes from abroad to join her father's hotel, but only as a trainee under the macho Siddharth. Within no time, Lara is in love with Siddharth.

It is now time for duets. Lara's friend Prakash is a campaigner of public cause. His efforts lead to a brothel raid and a minister getting arrested. The minister's goons bump off Prakash, and Siddharth is an eyewitness. Siddharth refuses to testify, and Lara walks out on him. Janakiraman pleads for the killer and lets him off. Siddharth bumps off Janakiraman. Major Vishwanath, a military officer, is a witness to the murder. He even postpones his heart operation until the killer is nabbed. Siddharth now tells his story of why he is on a hunt of the lawyers who plead for the bad guys. Vishwanath gives up his mission.

Next, Karunakaran takes a brief for a rapist, and he too is killed. Next is the turn of advocate Ashok Mehta, who comes from Delhi. The surprise element is that Ashok is Siddharth's brother-in-law; Ashok's wife is Siddharth's long-lost sister. Now, the brother-sister sentiment comes into play.

Finally, the story ends with Ashok being shot dead by Siddharth in the court premises. The police opens fire, and bystanders form a human wall and get shot at. Siddharth tells the TV crew about how his mission has spread to the masses.

Production
After the success of Vallarasu, Maharajan was supposed to direct Vijayakanth in another project but later got dropped and Maharajan went on to remake Vallarasu in Hindi as Indian with Sunny Deol. Meanwhile, Maharajan announced his next project Arasatchi with Arjun playing the lead role. Miss Universe 2000 Lara Dutta made her acting debut in Tamil with this film. The filming was held at Le Royal Meridian Hotel, Chennai, and the songs were picturised at locations in London, New Zealand and Canada. The song "Mughalai Mughalai" choreographed by Raju Sundaram was shot at London especially at London Central Tower.

During the making of the film, music composer Harris Jayaraj fell out with the director. The film was completed in 2003 but got delayed due to financial problems and finally released in 2004; in between production delays, Maharajan finished Anjaneya with Ajith.

Controversy
Before release, a poster featuring the tagline "When Justice Fails" created controversy, which caused a lawyer to file a case citing that the film would portray lawyers in bad light. However the case was sorted after the high court dismissed the petition.

Soundtrack
The music was composed by Harris Jayaraj.

Reception
Malini Mannath wrote for Chennai Online, "A knot had potential and would have been ideal for the 'action king' if only the screenplay had been etched more carefully, the narration tightened, with more 'action' given to Arjun than to factors like tanker-blasts, etc." Sify wrote, "Arjun does his usual song and fights convincingly while Lara Dutta is too loud and is there only for glamour and songs. The film looks out-dated as it has been years in the making". Visual Dasan of Kalki called the film "above average".